Fenderless rat or full fendered rat?

Hi Everyone

I was just thinking that I seem to be seeing a lot of fenderless radically low type rat rods for sale. Kinda got me to thinking do the owners get them all built and then they are NOT nearly as much fun to drive as they thought they would be?? I have yet to drive mine on the road but I am hoping it will ride decently and still be fenderless too. I hope I would be able to drive mine all summer to work and not be all sore and twisted when I get to work.

So how does your fenderless rat rod ride and drive???

Just thinking thats all.

MikeC

Where are you seeing all these for sale? Some guys like the building more than the driving, they drive it for the summer and then sell it to finance the next build. I used to do this with choppers, ride all summer and build all winter.

mikec4193 said:

Hi Everyone

I was just thinking that I seem to be seeing a lot of fenderless radically low type rat rods for sale. Kinda got me to thinking do the owners get them all built and then they are NOT nearly as much fun to drive as they thought they would be?? I have yet to drive mine on the road but I am hoping it will ride decently and still be fenderless too. I hope I would be able to drive mine all summer to work and not be all sore and twisted when I get to work.

So how does your fenderless rat rod ride and drive???

Just thinking thats all.

MikeC

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I drive mine alot. My office girls do comment that I smell like fuel when I do drive it....

How long of a drive do you have?

I would have to say, depends on how well you setup the chassis and the seating. Took my mom for a ride in mine, she said it rode pretty good, but was hard to get in/out of, she said it rode good...

And I would agree with sawzall, that is alot of it. They enjoy building them, then flip them when they get a good price and do another one.

Here is a photo of ours at the office, and one a friend texted me one day, giving me **** for not seeing him when I was driving it....

I think what you are asking is completely subjective. I like a firm ride and don't mind getting hit in the face with some water from run off and such. But ride quality has nothing to do with fenders. If a car rides great with fenders on then it will ride great with fenders off. I think what you are asking is how much do people enjoy driving their chopped channeled dropped fenderless rides all the time. It rains and snows alot up here so a fenderless roadster with no top might not be enjoyable to drive all the time.

I have agree Sawzall-I've spent months building the "perfect" bike-"this is gonna be the last one for a while-I'm gonna relax, take it easy" then I ride it for the summer and bam right back to building another one-but this one will be different-it will be "perfect". My biggest problem is I can't seem to part with them-I've got bikes in the basement,garage,shop-and yea my woman reminds me of this all the time. That's the nice thing about bikes though they don't take up a lot of room.

If you plan for comfort when you build it, it will be more comfortable to drive. Lot a guys plan the look without a lot of consideration to where their knees are gonna be. Or go 'good enough', but then can't stand to drive it more than 30 minutes at a time.

My Olds, I lowered the floor pan as far as I could and tilted the seat back and pushed it back far too. I padded the seat too much so I have to slouch a bit, but it's comfy.

i built one with an enclosed cab so the sun wouldnt cook me and rain wouldnt wreck my day.
also i gave it as much speedbump clearance as i could.
in rain the roostertails go on either side of the cab.
it has windows and a 28000 BTU heater
i drive this fenderless thing daily.

I've got mine riding pretty decent. I'm a little stiff and sore after a long road trip but I'm not a young man anymore...I get stiffened up in our '09 Impala too. I just turned 15,000 miles in mine this last Saturday.

Blue

The only thing that fenders are good for is to cover up IFS.

Ol Blue said:

I've got mine riding pretty decent. I'm a little stiff and sore after a long road trip but I'm not a young man anymore...I get stiffened up in our '09 Impala too. I just turned 15,000 miles in mine this last Saturday.

Blue

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Nice pic with the area 51 motorhome behind it

Fenders???, no fenders???. That's like chrome, no chrome. Neither has anything to do with comfort or ride quality. It's all appearance. I started with a stock looking, full fendered 52 Ford pick-up, and after a few years I decided to go full rat rod and got rid of the fenders and hood. I set the body and engine back 17 inches and chopped the bed to 4 feet and channeled the body 7 inches. Even though the seat is 4 inches lower, I still have the same ride.
Plan before you build. Build it so that you don't have to stop/drop/and crawl to get in and out of it, or be a circus contortionist to sit behind the wheel. If you're 6 foot 6 inches tall, don't build something where you'll be driving with your knees up your nose. Build something that will be comfortable to drive. After all, you build for your enjoyment, not the masses. If they oggle your ride, that's a plus.

mine was built to drive, comfort a must. like my fenders a lot, but next one won't have any

likes ihs said:

mine was built to drive, comfort a must. like my fenders a lot, but next one won't have any

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I like your fenders too..that is one sweet truck[dr

Old Iron said:

Nice pic with the area 51 motorhome behind it

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That pic was taken at the Run Whatcha Drags at Cordova, IL a couple of weeks ago.

Blue